Classical guitar in Greece during the second half of the twentieth century: aspects of the transformation of a musical instrument from the repertoire point of view

The study examines, from the point of view of the repertoire, how the classical guitar in Greece was transformed during the second half of the twentieth century from a folk instrument into a vehicle of art music. The first Greek professional soloists, Gerassimos Miliaressis and Dimitri Fampas, studied with Andrés Segovia and followed the type of programme he had shaped: many short pieces in chronological order, with a strong Spanish colour and no avant-garde music, but also with transcriptions of works by Hadjidakis and Theodorakis and original compositions with elements of Greek traditional music. From the 1970s onwards the repertoire was modernised, with commissions to Greek composers and works of avant-garde music. The study suggests that the guitar recital embodied the aspiration to upward social mobility of the social strata urbanised after the war.